Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Covenant > In Times Before the Light > Reviews > Lunar_Strain
Covenant - In Times Before the Light

The Dark Conquest - 100%

Lunar_Strain, October 17th, 2007

I had been eager to find this for a very long time, having heard the re-recording by the Kovenant and thought it was mediocre.

I was lucky to come across it, and boy am I glad I did. This is a masterpiece of early, raw Norwegian Black metal during the 1990's. Here we have an album that is raw, with scratchy guitars, muffled drums and softened keys powered by a young Nagash who provides gargling Vocals from the back of his throat.

Now, I said the production is raw, and it is, but the drums are mic'd very well. The snare is heard clearly, the symbols are also audible, as are the foot pedals. The drumming isn't half bad, either. Nagash does a decent job with the footwork as well as the rolls and fills. His blast beats are also on time, and paced evenly within the songs. Everything on this album, in every song, seems to flow well, and I think it is mostly due to the drumming.

The bass is inaudible, which is disheartening, but the guitars are well performed, the scratchy tone is not too light, but not exactly crunchy, either. From what I can tell, there aren't too many chords going on here, but alot of riffing based on tremelo-picked scales that seem to follow the some of the synth parts (or lead them; Dragonstorms is an example).

Speaking of the synth, this is nowhere near the keyboard-infested sounds of Nexus Polaris (An album I still find disappointing) or the later re-recording of this album and S.E.T.I (all recorded after this band underwent it's name change). Nagash's piano playing is not on par with the faster paces on the re-recording, and none of the ridiculous techno pieces are here at all. In fact, it seems alot of the keyboard pieces that are missing from the re-recording are actually played by an acoustic guitar (e.g. The Chasm, Storm Of Shadows, Night Of The Blackwinds).

The vocals are well performed, but nothing spectacular or over the top. The same, normal vocal performance heard by Nagash on many of his recordings, though I will give him credit here, as these vocals are much better than his ones on the "Drep De Kristne" album by Troll.

I highly recommend this album, if you find it.

Highlights: ALL!